The Final Impact
October 1, 2014
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
After a couple of weeks being away from my Final Thoughts (I know you missed me… well maybe not, ha) I’m back! And it was a very eventful Impact but in terms of the in-ring action there was a lot of filler to go along with some good too.
The opening with Austin Aries and Samoa Joe was excellent and I have to say I am really glad that Aries chose the X-Division Title. It put even more emphasis on that title and made it seem like something these two guys truly care about and want to fight for. Plus, Aries doesn’t look as dumb as if he went after the Tag Titles because the X-Division Champion does guarantee himself a title shot if you are holding it by Destination X time. The match itself was excellent and really well worked. Supposedly Samoa Joe suffered an injury somewhere in that match and if that is the case that is one tough son of a b*tch because you truly couldn’t tell. I would love to see Aries and Joe have a full blown feud in TNA. It also seems like we are just scratching the surface everytime they face each other.
I love Manik’s new look and I also like how they are keeping the colors with Storm’s protégé’s similar, it adds to the overall look. Manik/TJ Perkins I believe is a big comic book nerd so the super hero look probably was suggested by him, it looks really good though. That old Suicide look needed a revamping. It was fun to see Shark Boy but he really is way past his time and honestly I don’t see why they couldn’t have done that match with someone else. It was just a squash match but I do understand they wanted to get over his new aggressive style.
I do not care about this MVP/Anderson/King/Melendez thing and all the pandering to Melendez due to his military service is getting about as old as the one leg jokes. It is such a pointless angle going on.
The Tag Series segment was really good and they are doing such an awesome job at making this seem special, and the fact that all of the matches have been excellent doesn’t hurt either. Bully Ray came off looking like a dick in that segment but it brings some needed edge to it as did Matt Hardy. Davey and Eddie standing up to the legends was good as well.
The dissension between Lashley and MVP was interesting and I would like to see where they are headed with that. Lashley was obviously on the verge of accepting Roode’s challenge when MVP intervened.
It was nice to see the Knockouts get a lot of attention tonight but it was really a glorified squash between Havok and Gail with Gail getting a few flurries of offense. Yes it followed along with the overall story of the match with Havok injuring Gail earlier in the night, but you just wonder how great of a match they could go if they go all out. With the rumors of Gail’s contract coming up this could be just another wasted moment here for TNA if she decides to leave. They really have a chance to catch lightning in a bottle for the second time with Havok-Gail.
After a string of some really great shows tonight was okay and just felt kind of mediocre in comparison, and with the news of TNA getting set to announce a new TV deal hopefully things pick up in the coming weeks starting with Full Metal Mayhem next week!
– Segment/Promo of the Night: Tag Series Announcement
– Match of the Night: X-Division Title (****)
– Overall Grade: B-
Until next week… PEACE!
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